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WEATHERING THE BLAST

Plows, public-safety teams scramble; driving ban in effect

By Sarah Favot , sfavot@lowellsun.com

Updated:
02/09/2013 03:19:28 PM EST

Steven Gelineau of Lowell waits for his Pontiac to be pulled out of a ditch along Route 3 northbound in Bedford early Friday afternoon. Gov. Deval Patrick issued an executive order that banned motor-vehicle travel after 4 p.m. SUN / JULIA MALAKIE

LOWELL -- Sitting at long conference tables in a horseshoe formation in front of iPads tracking where calls to dispatchers come in, Deputy Police Superintendent Deborah Friedl was at the heart of the city's storm response Friday.

The Emergency Operations Center, In the basement of police headquarters, is the best place to solve problems, she said, because the room is shared by leaders of the city's public-safety departments, the Department of Public Works, Wastewater Department and a representative from National Grid.

The direct face-to-face communication means problems can be solved quickly, Friedl said -- something crucial this weekend as the region faces a blizzard that could reach historic proportions.

Mike Morrison and his daughter Erin, 9, and son Michael, 11, team up to shovel their next-door neighbor's driveway on Allen Road in Billerica on Friday. SUN / JULIA MALAKIE

"Lowell is fully prepared to deal with this storm," Police Superintendent Kenneth Lavallee said Friday afternoon.

The Emergency Operations Center, which opened Friday at noon ahead of the storm, is in the room next to the Communications Center, where 911 dispatchers were fielding calls from residents.

The most calls dispatchers received Friday were questions about Gov. Deval Patrick's executive order, issued at noon, that banned motor-vehicle travel after 4 p.m., Lavallee said.

Patrick's order is the first time a statewide travel ban was issued since the infamous Blizzard of '78, according to Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency spokesman Peter Judge.

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Exemptions from the ban include public-safety personnel, public-works employees, utility company vehicles, health-care workers who must travel and news media.

Deputy Police Superintendent Arthur Ryan said issuing the ban ahead of the storm, instead of after the snow fell as was the case in 1978, demonstrates the change in emergency-management procedures.

"I think the nature of emergency management means more preparation ahead of time," he said, and using better technology to predict storms sooner.

Ed Patenaude, Lowell's deputy commissioner of streets, oversees a front-end loader piling up a new shipment of salt in the sheds off Westford Street on Friday. See a video of the storm response at lowellsun.com. SUN / DAVID H. BROW

Lavallee said police would use "discretion and common sense" on whether to issue criminal complaints for drivers who are out on the roads during the ban.

Breaking the ban carries a penalty of up to one year in jail or a fine.

One problem officials at the Emergency Operations Center tackled around 3 p.m. Friday was whether towing companies that had removed vehicles during the parking ban should release vehicles to their owners after 4 p.m. when the travel ban went into effect.

After speaking with Lt. Tim Crowley, who is in charge of the traffic division, officials decided the tow lots should not release cars to drivers unless they are part of those exempted from the travel ban. Drivers would not be charged for the extra storage fee.

Friedl said the EOC made the decision earlier in the day to open Lowell High School as an emergency shelter. She said they got calls from residents who were anxious about losing their power and wanted to leave their homes for the shelter before the travel ban went into effect and the weather picked up.

Ryan said the department just about doubled the amount of police officers deployed across the city Friday night.

Nonuniformed officers, like detectives, joined patrol units and some officers were hired for overtime hours, Ryan said.

To cut down on vehicular traffic, two officers were assigned to every cruiser to respond to calls instead of having two cruisers, with one officer in each, respond, Ryan said.

Sixteen ambulances from Trinity EMS were deployed in areas throughout the city so paramedics could reach those in need of help more quickly, Lavallee said.

Assistant City Manager and Commissioner of Public Works Ralph Snow said Friday afternoon he had about 225 plows deployed throughout Lowell, including city vehicles and hired contractors.

"We have everybody we can have and every truck filled, and that's all we can do," he said.

Roads were salted as the snow started falling Friday, and once it began to accumulate, the plows hit the streets and would continue through the night, Snow said.

Each truck has an assigned route and would continue to plow throughout the duration of the storm, Snow said.

"Our mission during a storm is basically to keep the streets travelable for emergency vehicles," he said.

He said the governor's travel ban is helpful to plow operators, especially on narrow streets.

"These trucks are big and the plows are wide and you're way up in the air," he said.

Tom Cason, of Cason's Equipment, was on the roads Friday delivering generators to people who need them.

He said he was almost sold of generators, but is expecting another delivery.

Saturday, the rush will transition to snowblowers.

"What I have found in the decades I've done this, once you get past Jan. 1 even though winter's just begun and you've got two more months of it, people assume winter's over. They just work the odds," he said.

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